Shi cheng
Subtitle: short stories from urban China
By: edited by Liu Ding, Carol Yinghua Lu, and Ra Page
Contributors: Zhu, Wen, 1967-
Publisher: Comma Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: [Manchester]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 210
ISBN-13: 9781905583461
Subjects: Chinese Short stories; Translations into English; Fiction
Description: "To the West, China may appear an unstoppable economic unity, a single high-performing whole, but for the inhabitants of this vast, complex, and contradictory nation, it is the cities that hold the secret to such economic success. From the affluent, Westernized Hong Kong to the ice-cold Harbin in the north, from the Islamic quarters of Xi’an to the manufacturing powerhouse of Guangzhou—China’s cities thrum with promise and aspiration, playing host to the myriad hopes, frustrations, and tensions that define China today. The stories in this anthology offer snapshots of ten such cities, taking in as many different types of inhabitant. Here we meet the lowly Beijing mechanic lovingly piecing together his first car from scrap metal, somnambulant commuters at a Nanjing bus stop refusing to acknowledge the presence of a dead body just feet away, or Shenyang intellectuals conducting a letter-writing campaign on the moral welfare of their city. The challenges depicted in these stories are uniquely Chinese, but the energy and ingenuity with which their authors approach them is something readers everywhere can marvel at."--Back cover.
Table of contents: title: Square moon / Ho Sin Tung; title: But what about the red Indians? / Cao Kou; title: Kangkang's gonna kill that fucker Zhao Yilu / Jie Chen; title: Rendezvous at the Castle Hotel / Yi Sha; title: Dear wisdom tooth / Zhang Zhihao; title: This moron is dead / Han Dong; title: Family secrets / Ding Liying; title: Wheels are round / Xu Zechen; title: Squatting / Diao Dou; title: How to look at women / Zen Wen.